The board secretary's job in Florida, explained.

By Carlos Castellano · Current as of July 6, 2026

On paper, the board secretary keeps the minutes. In practice, the secretary is the association’s record keeper, and Florida’s board-education laws quietly made that job bigger. Every certification document the statutes require ends up in the secretary’s hands. Here is what the role actually involves now.

You are the custodian of the education records

Both association types must keep proof of director education in their official records, and keeping official records is the secretary’s traditional duty. For HOAs, Section 720.3033(1)(c), Florida Statutes, requires the association to retain each director’s educational certificate for member inspection for 5 years after the director’s election. For condos, Section 718.112(2)(d)5.b. keeps the written certification and educational certificate for 7 years after election, or the duration of the director’s uninterrupted service, whichever is longer.

Read those retention rules as a job description: certificates cannot live in each director’s personal email. They have to land in the association’s records, and someone has to be able to produce them when a member asks.

The condo written certification comes to you by name

Condo directors file two things, and the statute says where: the written certification goes to the secretary of the association, together with the educational certificate. If you are a condo secretary, you are the named recipient of a statutory filing. What that document must say is covered in the condo written certification, explained, and there is a free print-and-sign form (PDF) you can hand to incoming directors.

Two separate statuses to track, not one

A mistake we see constantly: treating “certified” as the whole story. Each director actually carries two independent statuses. Certification is the multi-year credential, valid 4 years for HOA and 7 for condo from the completion date. Continuing education is the annual obligation, 4 or 8 hours for HOA directors depending on association size and 1 hour for condo directors. A director can hold a perfectly valid certificate and still be behind on this year’s hours. Track both, per director, and label which one you mean in any report to the board.

The renewal calendar runs on completion dates

Every deadline is measured from the date each director completed the course, not from anyone’s election date. That means the secretary’s calendar needs one date per director, and a reminder set comfortably before each expiry, because there is no grace window at renewal. The full reasoning is in what to do when a board certificate is about to expire.

The rest of the job comes from your documents

Minutes, meeting notices, correspondence, and the other familiar secretary work are defined by your association’s bylaws rather than by the education statutes, so check your governing documents for the exact scope. The pattern across all of it is the same: the secretary is the person who makes the association’s paper trail exist and keeps it findable.